Neela
Neela is the deuteragonist of the Waterfire Saga, being Serafina’s best friend and Mahdi’s cousin. She has a pet blowfish named Ooda, who inflates when Neela is stressed. Appearance Neela is very pretty, with the appearance of an Indian girl. She has glossy jet-black hair down to her tail fin and pale blue skin. Her skin gives off blue light whenever she is around other bioluminescents or she is under extreme emotion. The shade of blue depends on how strong the emotion she feels is. When Neela arrives at Miromara, she wears a yellow sari. For Serafina's Dokimi, she wears a dark pink sari with the wrap made of sea silk and the top and skirt are made of thousands of tiny Anomia shells stitched on tulle. Also, she wears earrings, rings, bracelets, a belt with a jewelled buckle and long prong and a ruby necklace and an underskirt. Later, to disguise herself, she wears a tattered lace top with the collar torn off, a voluminous sea-silk skirt and a `military jacket fastened with rusty fish hooks, all in black, and wears fish hook earrings, a necklace made from a shark tooth threaded on some fishing line, black squid ink lipstick, shimmering blue-black mussel-shell powder eye shadow and carries with her a terragog messenger bag with Anne Bonny Roolz ''inked on in silver. She bleaches her hair blonde and coils it on top of her head and secures it with a swordfish's bill. In Rogue Wave, Neela still wears her swashbuckler outfit but sometimes changes. When she goes back to Matali, she restores her hair back to it's natural shade and wears clean clothes and an ivory robe when she sleeps. After she escapes, she changes her looks temporarily with a illusio spell: she wears a long, neon-blue, boyfriend-size caballabong jersey with ''GO GOA! ''across the front and a number 2 on the back, a pair of enormous round glasses, shiny gold hoop earrings, a flashy designer bag and sparkly silver nail varnish, she also changes her hair blonde again and changes her skin to pink. At Nzuri Bonde, she wears a belt studded with black coral, turitella earrings and her shark-tooth necklace, and for a disguise she covers her tail and torso in bright purple and blue splotches but Kora changes this so she is mottled in five different shades of mud instead. In Dark Tide, she wears a short dark blue military jacket with black trim. In the Iele's chant she is described as ''one whose heart will hold the light. Personality She is shown to be bubbly and cheerful, obsessed with zee zees, bing bangs and other mer candy. She is creative and somewhat girly, but can be tougher when neccesary. She is also fun, outgoing and adventurous and loyal to her friends. Relationships Serafina Neela regards Sera as a close friend and is wary of others around Sera, and is very loyal to her. Her cousin, Mahdi, is Sera’s betrothed which is shown to be an awkward subject for Neela. Mahdi Madhi, Neela’s cousin, is a bit of a party boy and Neela dislikes him for disliking Sera. She doesn’t defend him and doesn’t bother to help him. Yazeed Yazeed is Neela’s brother and Mahdi’s cousin. The two hang out a lot. Yazeed and Mahdi seem to be idiots in Deep Blue, but in Rogue Wave, they reveal the reason for the ways they have been acting is because they joined the Praedatori. It turns out he was disguised as Grigio. Neela then finds out Yazeed is not the idiot and party boy she think he is, but a completely different Yazeed. She also finds out he is a great actor. Powers Neela’s skin gives off blue light under extreme happiness, stress or sadness. She is shown to be very powerful at fragor lux, or light, spells. Her powers also increase when she is with the other five merls, this is shown when she manages to get her a Serafina into a mirror, and when she casts a fragor lux and Abbadon. She is known to be the one who holds the light. She is also very talented at fragor lux spells, being a bioluminescent. Role In the Books Deep Blue Neela travels to Miromara for Serafina's Dokimi and during the journey, she is troubled by a strange dream of river witches telling her to find five other mermaids. When she arrives, she and Serafina chat and she reluctantly tells her that Mahdi has changed and become a wild party boy. She is furious when they discover Yazeed and Mahdi passed out after a night of partying. This causes Serafina, who is hurt by Mahdi's change, to swim away. At the Dokimi, Miromara is stormed by assassins Serafina's mother wounded by a poisoned arrow. She is forced to drag Serafina away from her dying mother and they escape from Cerulean, the royal city and set off on a journey to Tsarno, a fortress town. During the journey, Serafina tells her that Ondalina attacked them. A merman called Zeno Piscor shows them to a cave where they sleep for the night. When she wakes up, Neela sees that Serafina's arm are bound and she is gagged and Baco Goga is in the cave with them. His eels tie Neela's hands behind her back and he gags her, then orders his eels to steal their jewelry. He reveals that Zeno betrayed them and hands them over to Traho, who takes them to his camp. They are rescued by Praedatori who take them to their leader at his palazzo, but the palazzo is ambushed and she and Serafina are forced to dive into the mirror. The mirror lord, Rrorim Drol, corners Serafina but Neela helps her escape from him and they go through a mirror and end up in Radneva and meet up with Ling. Neela helps them with costumes and they travel to the Iele who summoned her and meet Astrid, Ava and Becca. She learns that she is descendant of Navi and that she has to find her talisman to defeat Abaddon. The Iele's caves are attacked and the whole group dive into a mirror.